Honored was the first word that came to mind when Ponte Vedra High junior Morgan Pratt found out she was named the school’s scholar-athlete of the month for January.
“Coach is a big inspiration of mine, and I was honored by the fact that she nominated me,” Pratt said. “It has almost brought more confidence to myself, and I instantly thought about how grateful I am for my opportunities.”
Pratt is a captain on the Sharks’ girls weightlifting team, which is a role she has embraced with her leadership.
According to Pratt, the recognition is huge, and she hopes she can represent not only the school but girls weightlifting.
“Having a weightlifter as scholar-athlete of the month is huge just to get more recognition to the sport,” Pratt said.
After her family moved to the area from Utah a couple of years ago, she transferred to Ponte Vedra from Fletcher last year and decided to give the weightlifting program a try.
She was familiar with lifting weights and working out as part of the training process for many other sports she had played over the years.
“Growing up in gyms has been my thing, but I just wasn’t competing in it,” Pratt said. “I went to the first practice and saw all these girls working hard, and I remember thinking ‘this is cool, I want to be like them.’”
One of the major differences she has enjoyed about competitive lifting compared to every day training is the atmosphere that exists.
“It’s nice to just go and lift by myself to give me time to reflect, but when you go into a competition you have all these girls screaming and cheering for you to be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday,” Pratt said. “I feel like everyone needs that type of support in their lives. We all feed off each other’s energy, and it makes you feel unstoppable.”
Pratt competes in the 129-pound class and recently competed at the Class 2A state meet.
Her personal best in clean-and-jerk is 165 pounds, while her max bench and snatch is 125 and 115, respectively.
“From PVC pipe to 165 is huge,” Pratt said. “That’s a lot of weight and it’s still going up with every day that I consistently work and go at it.”
Pratt and her girls weightlifting teammates have taken part in a couple of different community initiatives, including helping with Children’s Miracle Network and Toy for Tots.
She aspires to go into the medical field and credits her mom for helping be her inspiration with the work she does as a nursing educator at Mayo Clinic.
“I’m interested in anything where I can be hands on and helping people,” Pratt said.
